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5 Common Ways Motorcycle Accidents Happen

by Auto AccidentsAutomobile SafetyMotorcycle Accidents

Riding a motorcycle can be exhilarating. The roar of the engine provides the soundtrack for flying down the open road – just you and your bike. But riding a motorcycle can also be dangerous. The thrill of riding a motorcycle can quickly become risky if you’re not careful or riding safely.

 

If you’re going to take a motorcycle on the road, you should complete a basic motorcycle rider course and know the Florida motorcycle laws, in addition to being equipped with the proper safety gear.

 

What kind of safety gear?

Helmet, gloves, protective eyewear, boots, leather clothes, and body armor. This kind of gear can both make riding a motorcycle more comfortable and help to protect you from injuries if you are involved in an accident.

 

But the best thing you can do is try to avoid accidents altogether.
To help you do that, here are 5 of the most common types of motorcycle accidents and how to prevent them.

 

  1. A car turns left in front of you.

    This is probably the most common motorcycle accident. Why does it happen? Lots of reasons. A car might not see you or can’t correctly judge your speed. They might also be distracted or driving recklessly. Additionally, cars waiting to turn at intersections are particularly dangerous, as are gaps in traffic at an intersection, parking lot, or driveway.

 

As a motorcyclist, you need to be prepared for these kind of mistakes. Drivers might display certain signs that can foreshadow their turning in front of you. One thing to look for is the direction of cars’ wheels. The direction of a car’s wheels is the first sign of what the car might do next.

 

Boca Raton Motorcycle Accident Lawyer

 

 

  1. You turned too fast into a corner.

    You’re going too fast into a corner and you realize you might not totally make it. What do you do? Well, first of all, you shouldn’t be going too fast. You should also be paying attention to visual cues from the road to know what’s coming up ahead.

 

If you’re in that situation though, try to ride it out. Don’t slam on the brakes or do anything that may cause a loss of traction. Lean into the corner and be in control of the bike.

 

 

  1. A car suddenly changes lanes into you.

    Motorcycles can easily fit into a car’s blind spot, so unfortunately it’s easy for a car to drift into your space.

 

As a motorcyclist, you should know this and be aware of where blind spots are and avoid riding into those spots. A good note: if you can see a driver’s eyes in their mirror, they can see you too. You should also be watching the road to see if cars will need to be changing lanes quickly.

 

Also watch for signs a car might be changing lanes:

    • Turn signals
    • Turning wheels
    • A driver is checking their mirrors
    • A driver’s head is moving

 

5 Common Ways Motorcycle Accidents Happen 1 Motorcycle Accident Lawyer South Florida Injury Law Firm

 

  1. A car hits you from behind.

    With cars, fender benders are the most common accident. But a fender bender with a motorcycle could kill a motorcyclist.

Avoid this accident by using other cars as barriers. When you stop, politely pull in front of another stopped car to cushion yourself from any cars coming up behind you. Or pull in between a line of cars.

If there aren’t any stopped cars, stop to the side of your lane instead right in the center. Flash your brake lights and be aware of what’s happening behind you in case you need to quickly get out of the way.

 

 

 

  1. A car opened its door.

    If there are parked cars on the side of the road, never ride between them and an active lane of traffic. Even if there’s a ton of extra room. Car doors can open. Pedestrians can step into the road. Cars can pull out. And so on. Motorcyclists and bicyclists call the area next to parked cars The Death Zone for this very reason.

 

If, however, you end up in this situation, brake as hard as possible to avoid a collision. If a collision is going to happen anyway, you can at least decrease your speed.

Hopefully, when you’re on your motorcycle, you ride safely and exercise caution while on the road. If for some reason you or a loved one is injured in a motorcycle accident, seek medical attention immediately. Then contact an experienced motorcycle accident attorney who can look at the facts of your case and determine if you’re entitled to any damages.

 

 

 

 

Motorcycle Accident

Why You Shouldn’t Ride Drunk

by Motorcycle Accidents

Motorcycle Accident
Everyone knows not to drive drunk, and it’s no different for motorcyclists– except that the nature of their vehicle puts them at even higher risk of injury or death because it requires more coordination to operate,and there’s far less protecting riders than those driving cars. Unfortunately, these facts don’t seem to have sunk in with many motorcyclists because the percentage of accidents and especially fatalities involving alcohol are extremely high.

 

In fact, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says,“the percentage of intoxicated motorcycle riders in fatal crashes is greater than the percentage of intoxicated drivers on our roads.” Stats can be interpreted in many different ways, but this one seems pretty clear – either a higher percentage of motorcyclists choose to ride drunk when compared to car drivers or the numbers are similar, but the greater difficulty involved in operating a motorcycle leads to more accidents. Regardless of which scenario is more accurate, the resultis the same – if you ride drunk, you’re more likely to get hurt or even die.

 

This seems like something that should be obvious, but why then are so many motorcyclists still doing it? The trend isn’t a new one, either. A decade ago, Motor Cyclist Magazine reported that 45% of motorcycle fatalities in 2002 involved intoxicated riders, and when you looked at just weekends, that already high percentage skyrocketed to 62%!

 

You can find statistics like that all over the place, but maybe that’s not enough. Perhaps the problem is that reading numbers is an abstract exercise, and riders need a personal story to connect with and “scare them straight” as it were. Steven Dennis Parrett has just such a story.

 

Drunk Riding Leads to Jail, Sister in Nursing Home

 

Motorcycle Accident1

While this is certainly not true for all motorcyclists, some think of themselves as tough and adventurous – people who can get away with skirting the rules because they can handle it. There’s no real way of knowing if Parrett is one of those men or if he just did something stupid, but in the end it doesn’t really matter.

 

In July of 2011, 44-year-old Parrett was arrested by Michigan State Police after crashing his bike at around 12:30 in the morning. When they tested his blood alcohol level, it was found to be an insanely high .20, so Parrett was almost definitely in for a DUI charge. That’s bad enough, but it gets a lot worse.

 

You see, Parrett wasn’t riding alone that night. His older sister (46) was with him, and when he crashed, she was flung from the bike and landed in a ditch. Thankfully, the woman survived, so he doesn’t have to live with killing his sister, but that’s pretty much the only positive thing that can be said about the incident. She was still so severely injured that she now has to live in a nursing home and “remains unresponsive.”

 

None of this had to happen, and no other vehicles were involved in the accident. Parrett was simply so drunk that he couldn’t handle his bikeand it cost him and his sister dearly. You may not think that something like this could happen to you, but why take the risk in the first place? Motorcyclists are already putting themselves in more danger than regular car drivers by choosing a vehicle that doesn’t offer as much protection – don’t make riding harder by drinking before you get on your bike.

 

About the Author:
Jeffrey Braxton is a trial lawyer in Fort Lauderdale who has devoted his 22-year career to the practice of personal injury law. As lead trial attorney for The South Florida Injury Law Firm, Jeff has litigated thousands of cases and is a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, an exclusive group of attorneys who have resolved cases in excess of one million dollars.

Motorcycle Accident

Common Motorcycle Accident Injuries

by Auto Accidents

Motorcycle Accident

Motorcycles represent power, freedom, and rebellion. More so than with cars, there’s a feeling that you can just hop on your motorcycle and escape from the world, and the fact that they don’t have things like doors or roofs can make you feel more connected to nature and the road.

 

Unfortunately, many riders end up literally more connected to that road when they’re involved in a crash because of those very things they love. No doors and no roof may mean that you get to feel the wind in your face, but it also means far less protection.

 

Exactly how dangerous are motorcycles? When you compare the number of crashes to cars that travel the same number of miles, someone riding a motorcycle is 30 times more likely to have an accident.

 

That’s an amazing statistic, but perhaps even more telling is the fact that 80 percent of all motorcycle crashes cause injury or death to the operator. If you crash while riding your motorcycle, you’re going to get hurt – and possibly worse.

 

So, what exactly can you expect to be dealing with after your crash? Some of the most common types of injuries include:

 

Road rash

 

This is a rather delicate name for something that can be deadly serious. What is road rash? Well, unlike car drivers and passengers, bikers almost always get thrown from their vehicle in a crash. This tends to mean landing on the road and often skidding or rolling a good distance before coming to a stop. If you aren’t wearing good, strong protective clothing, it’s likely that your skin is going to scrape across that road, and you’re going to have some damage. Mild cases might just mean a few red marks, but some riders have been known to lose entire patches of skin from road rash.

 

Broken bones

 

If you’re getting thrown from a motorcycle doing 60 mph on a highway, it stands to reason that there’s going to be a hard impact and you might suffer a fracture or two. Riders involved in accidents frequently end up with broken legs or arms, hip and pelvic fractures, cracked ribs, and so on. Severe breaks may poke through the skin and cause lasting damage that’s difficult to repair, including nerve damage. According to the CDC, riders are most likely to hurt their legs and feet, followed by the next group of injuries we’ll cover.

 

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Head injury

 

Anyone who’s ever ridden a bike knows the mantra: helmets save lives. It may seem cliché or even annoying in its pervasiveness, but the statistics show that it really is true. Roughly a third of all deaths resulting from motorcycle accidents could be prevented if the rider was wearing a helmet. What does that mean in real numbers? Well, in 2008 alone,almost 2,000 riders had their lives saved because they were wearing a helmet. And that doesn’t even factor in the number of people protected from severe injury by helmets, because many riders who sustain head injuries and live end up with brain damage.

 

An experienced motorcycle accident attorney will tell you that in some ways, spine damage may be even worse because there’s little that you can do to protect against it – there’s no “helmet” for your back, and landing on it in the wrong way can lead to serious nerve damage or even paralysis.

 

How Do You Prevent These Injuries?

 

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Drive safe. Though there will always be events out of your control, studies show that 43% of all motorcycle accidents involve alcohol. Never, ever get on your ride after drinking, and always follow safe practices on the road, such as obeying speed limits and street signs, using your turning signals, and riding with others so that it’s easier for other drivers to see you.